Fez

I think this will probably be the vacation of the year, but who knows. Keith and I have never traveled to a place that is so different and so interesting. Between Marrakesh and Fez we enjoyed Fez more. The Medina in Fez is bigger and it is not so touristy. When you walk around in Morocco it is so clear that you are a tourist and we really enjoyed wondering around the Medina seeing how people lived and what they did, not because they could sell it to tourists but because this was actually how they lived. At times when we were being hassled in the streets or felt completely lost in the narrow streets of the Medina we were a bit overwhelmed, but being exposed to the culture and history of this city was totally worth it.

The picture above is the of our Riad in Fez. We had them arrange for a driver to pick us up from the airport and thank goodness, as it would have been impossible to find it otherwise. We were dropped off at one of the entrances to the Medina, where we were met by the guardian of our Riad who lead us down the twisting streets for our first exposure to the Medina. When we turned down a dark tunnel, I started to get a little nervous, but then he unlocked a door which led into a hallway which led into the fabulous courtyard which you see above. This Riad "Dar Finn" was recommended by a friend who knew the owners. They have just finished renovating and the tile work is excellent. You can also see below part of their lovely terrace which looks over the roof tops of the city. After finding our way through the narrow and dark streets, it was wonderful to come up here and just listen to the call to prayer sweep across the valley.

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On our second day in Fez we took a tour from a friend of the couple that owned the Riad. It wasn't a conventional tour, like you would expect in Europe or North America. There was little about the history or important events that happened in Fez, but instead we got to see how people actually lived. The picture above is of a family residence. We of course were staying in a renovated riad that is now fitted out for tourists, but many in the Medina still live in similar buildings that are built around a courtyard with multiple families living in each section. It is clear that even though a lot of money is being put into repairing the Medina, as it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, many people live in ancient building that have seen little repair and restoration. Something we discussed a bit with our guide and discussed a lot with each other and some of the other guests is the friction between foreigners buying up these wonderful riads and rebuilding them, versus the local people who do not have the income to fix up buildings of Medina but have lived their for thousands of years.

The activities and daily life in the Medina really gave us a new perspective on how a walled city in Europe must have operated. It was interesting to witness life in a walled city, after visiting some many ruins and old wall cities around Europe in the last year. Firstly, in the Medina in Fez there are no cars. Everything is transported by either men with these big wheel barrows, or by donkey. Yes, even the garbage is picked up by donkey. The main streets are no more than two meters across and the smaller ones are so narrow that at times you have to turn sideways to get through. We would never have been able to experience all of the in and outs of the Medina without our guide because there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the streets and because all of the buildings are at least three stories high it is difficult to get your bearings. During the day the streets are packed with stores that are basically the sides of closets with shutters that open onto the street to give the vendor more space to display his works (notice I do say his, it was rare to see women working in shops). At night all the shutters are closed up and any landmarks you may have made during the day are completely gone.

In addition to the millions of little shops that lined the streets and lack of cars on the narrow streets, the Medina in many ways still functions like it did a thousand years ago. Running water has been a recent addition to the Medina and many people still go to public fountains to get their drinking water. Even if people have drinking water in their homes, they likely don't have a shower, so to bath people go to public baths called hammams. These are heated by cedar chips. You can see the man (who really just looks like a boy) above, whose only job is to feed the chips by hand into the fire to heat the baths. After seeing the various ruins of Roman baths around Provence it was cool to see that this same type of concept still exists here. Some baths are just for men and some are for both men and women, but women can only go between nine in the morning and three or four in the afternoon because they use the hammams when men are working.

The gender roles are obviously changing, as we saw women working in offices and dressed in modern clothes, but in some respects remain the same. Without blinking an eye, our guide explained how men went to work and women were in charge of preparing dough, which they bring to the public ovens, where it is baked. These roles were interestingly re-enforced by what we saw around the Medina. Women were involved mostly in shopping for food or clothes, and after about eight o'clock in the evening there were few women out and about at all.

The Medina of Fez is made up of 350 communities. Each community has a hammam or two, a fountain and a mosque. So within the fifteen square kilometers of the Medina there are 350 mosques. You can see the minarets towering over the buildings of the Medina. Since the Medina is in a valley the call to prayer travels in a wave from the minarets, as the different callers start depending on the positioning of the sun, and then the sound echos back from the surrounding hills. It really is a chilling experience to hear it start and then slowly fade as the sun is going down.
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One of the things I enjoyed most about the Medina was seeing children playing in the street. Unlike our societies where children have to be accompanied by an adult everywhere, it was nice to see children playing soccer on their narrow streets, or old men playing cards in the square. Sometimes I think that we have lost this sense of community, especially when I think of how many people don't take advantage of the city space around them but instead drive to the park. In Fez the brick layed streets were the soccer pitch.

In contrast to this though, the poverty and garbage was everywhere. Plastic bags at times covered fields and the lack of health care was obvious walking by some of people in the street. Being a "rich" westerner in these cases makes me feel guilty and at the same time extremely grateful for what I have at home. My life may not be perfect, but my family is healthy and I have jobs that pay for me to not just live but go on vacations.

As I mentioned above life in the Medina is busy from the farmers market where you can buy eggs, live chickens to the tanneries. Business is how this city has thrived and although they may hold on to traditional ways of fabricating their products they are there to sell just as much as any capitalist westerner.  Fez is known for its leather products and although it was fascinating to hear about the process of treating and drying the skins. It smelt. Even though we were given mint at the door to sniff throughout the tour, it is a stench you do not forget.

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Fez is also known for its textiles. Often we saw men spinning thread along the sides of buildings using a fishing real to wind it. The silk is actually from agave cacti and is then woven into textiles.

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An artisan at work spinning pottery. Below you see the tanned skins drying on the hillside.

Ironically this same hillside may have been grazed by the same sheep that are now being turned into leather. All around Fez any open area with grass seemed to be fair game for shepherds and goat herders.

I took this picture from the terrace of a restaurant we went to for lunch. Really I should have taken a picture of the food also. The food was absolutely fantastic and surprisingly I could eat a lot of it. They always started with a variety of salads. Our favourites were lentil salads, zaalouk (sp?) eggplant, tomatoes and olive oil, and carrots with oil sugar and cinnamon. These of course were followed by tagine and some of the best oranges we have ever had for desert! My mouth is just watering explaining it. Needless to say, I will be investing in a good Moroccan cookbook and a tagine.

More to come...